by Erin Kelly, USATODAY

by Erin Kelly, USATODAY

WASHINGTON - High-tech companies' support for a bill that would increase visas for skilled foreign workers has sparked fear among immigration activists that the powerful industry wants to cut its own deal and abandon the larger cause of a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

That fear spurred Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. - one of the original architects of the immigration bill that passed the Senate last year - to send industry leaders a letter urging them not to break their commitment to the broader changes, including a pathway to citizenship for the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants in the USA.

Tech companies say they remain committed to comprehensive change, but the controversy underscores the fragility of the diverse coalition of advocates and their growing frustration over the failure of Congress to pass a bill.

"Until a coalition like this has a tangible success, there are going to be inherent suspicions among the partners," said Louis DeSipio, a political science and Latino studies professor at the University of California-Irvine. "The inaction of the House on immigration reform is creating tension. Each of the coalition partners is unsure of how committed the other partners are."

That's especially true, DeSipio said, since the coalition supporting an immigration overhaul is broader than it has ever been, bringing together business groups and labor unions, Catholics and evangelical Protestants, immigrant rights activists and police chiefs.

"This is a new coalition in American immigration reform history," the professor said. "Some of the coalition partners don't know each other that well."

That may be one reason why a recent op-ed in Roll Call by the executive director of Compete America - a coalition of technology companies, universities and trade associations favoring new immigration laws - caused such a negative reaction among other supporters.

Scott Corley used his March 19 op-ed to call on Congress to act now to take up legislation such as the SKILLS Visa Act that would increase the cap on the number of H1-B visas from 65,000 to 155,000, allowing U.S. companies to bring in more computer scientists, engineers and other highly skilled workers from foreign countries. The bill has been introduced by Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

"It is time to take action," Corley wrote. "There is widespread agreement among both parties and in both chambers of Congress that high-skilled immigration is good for the economy."

Some of Compete America's allies in the broader fight for immigration changes saw that op-ed as evidence that the tech industry might be looking to cut a deal to benefit only itself.

"I am troubled by a recent statement that some in the technology industry may shift their focus to passage of stand-alone legislation that would only resolve the industry's concerns," Durbin wrote in an April 1 letter to the CEOs of Accenture, Amazon, Cisco, Deloitte, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Oracle.

"This 'divide and conquer' approach destroys the delicate political balance achieved by our bipartisan (Senate) bill and calls into question the good faith of those who would sacrifice millions of lives for H1-B relief," Durbin wrote.

Corley called the rift a "false controversy" and said he has reached out to other members of the coalition to reassure them.

"Nothing has really changed for us," Corley said. "No one has been more committed than our industry to comprehensive immigration reform. And that's still what we're working for."

However, since House leaders have said they prefer to take up immigration legislation issue-by-issue rather than in one sweeping bill, Corley said he urged them to take up the H1-B issue as a first step.

"We just want the House to start with something," he said. "We don't care if it's H1-B or border security or the Dream Act (to help young immigrants brought to the USA illegally as children)," Corley said. "We'll take it any way that gets us to reform."

Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice immigrant rights group, said he is not worried that Congress would pass an H1-B visa bill without taking action on a broader immigration bill.

Even if the Republican-led House passed a bill that would help high-skilled foreign workers, the Democrat-led Senate and White House would not let it go through unless it was part of a comprehensive package, Sharry said.

"I'm annoyed but not concerned," Sharry said. "Tech lobbyists may be doing things to try to impress their bosses, but it's not the kind of thing that's going to survive the rough and tumble of Congress."

That could change if Republicans take control of the Senate in this fall's election, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes the Senate's immigration bill.

"If both chambers of Congress pass an H1-B bill, would the president really veto it?" Krikorian said. "I'm not sure he would. And if the tech industry gets what it wants, then they're done. What do they care about the rest of this stuff?"